Recently, the research team led by Prof. Jiang Jianzhong from the School of Advanced Materials and New Energy at Fuyao University of Science and Technology published a research paper entitled Rationally Designed Mo/Ru-Based Multi-Site Heterogeneous Electrocatalyst for Accelerated Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in the internationally renowned journal Advanced Materials. Rational design of multi-site electrocatalysts with three distinct functional sites for H₂O dissociation, H–H coupling, and rapid H₂ release represents an ideal yet challenging strategy to accelerate the sluggish kinetics of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) under alkaline conditions.

To address this challenge, this work rationally designed a Mo/Ru-based multi-site catalyst (Ru/Mo₂C/MoO₂) with three different functional sites and evaluated its performance toward alkaline HER. Experimental results and density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate that at the heterogeneous Mo₂C/MoO₂ interface, high-valence Mo (MoO₂) and low-valence Mo (Mo₂C) exhibit strong binding affinity toward OH* and H* respectively, thereby significantly accelerating H₂O dissociation. Meanwhile, interfacial Ru possesses optimal hydrogen adsorption energy, which promotes H–H coupling and subsequent H₂ evolution. Consequently, this catalyst markedly accelerates both the Volmer step and the Tafel step, leading to boosted HER kinetics.

The catalyst delivers overpotentials of only 19 mV and 160 mV at current densities of 10 mA cm⁻² and 1000 mA cm⁻² in alkaline media, respectively, and exhibits long-term stability superior to most state-of-the-art alkaline HER electrocatalysts. This study provides a rational design principle for constructing advanced multi-site catalytic systems toward multi-electron electrocatalytic reactions.

Paper link: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202410039